The artist Angelo Franco, Jr., began his formal art education at Parsons School of Design on a scholarship in 1981. He later continued his studies at Paier College of Art with Robert Zappalorti, a former student of renown artist Ken Davies. In 1987, Angelo received his Bachelors Degree in Fine Art form The School of Visual Arts in New York City. Following graduation from SVA, Angelo began his career as a freelance illustrator. Random House Publishers, Simon and Schuster, Globe Books, Field Publications, as well as several magazines and advertising agencies, are among his list of clients. After over a decade in illustration, Angelo stopped accepting commercial assignments and began work on a body of paintings that culminated in his first ever solo exhibition in the summer of 2001. The show, at the Weston Library Gallery in Weston, CT, featured thirty-six original landscape and seascape paintings and rare viewings of local private commissions. Other exhibitions include The Stamford Art Association Gallery, The Master Eagle Gallery (NY), The Art Directors Club (NY), The SVA Alumni Gallery, and The Society of Illustrators, where Angelo was the recipient of the prestigious Lila Acheson Wallace/Readers Digest Award.
“I am concerned with the painting coming together as a complete visual statement. I strive to give a painting precisely what it needs and not a lot more. The subject of my work is mostly landscape. I am aware of the presence of people in my work, although I rarely use them in my paintings. My concentration is really more a sense of their having been there, perhaps long ago, or just recently. That is what I try to convey in my work. An old house, barn, or even a stone wall has a certain relevance to whomever came before. I imagine myself an observer, being there just as they were, a witness to time passing by and the remnants left behind.”